12. Keir
Keir
I pounded on Orin’s door and waited for the Reaper to answer.
“What?” he barked, the door remaining stubbornly shut.
“Need to borrow something.”
“Fuck off.”
“Come on, man. I just need to borrow a set of cuffs.”
A moment later, he pulled open the door while dragging a shirt down his torso. His glare screamed he was ready to fucking disembowel me.
Leaning against the jamb, I casually folded my arms and tried to peer around his shoulder. With a low snarl, he shoved me backward and stepped into the hallway.
“Interrupting something?” I asked.
“You know you did. What the fuck do you want?”
I let the sharp pain of not being the man Fallon chose slide off me. “I need some cuffs.”
His dark brows rose. “Why?”
“To keep Molly from running away in the middle of the night.”
With a grunt, he opened his door before shutting it quickly behind him. I knew what kind of sex Orin enjoyed, but I had a hard time accepting Fallon liked it too. When he reappeared, he held a set of cuffs.
“Got a key for these?”
He tossed both the cuffs and the keys at my chest, and I caught them with a grin. “Thanks, man.”
“Fuck off,” he grumbled, stepping back into his bedroom and locking the door behind him.
I sauntered back to my bedroom, unlocking the door and moving inside.
My eyes went to the bed, expecting to find Molly there, but she was curiously absent.
Maybe in the bathroom then? Nope, the door was open, and the light was off.
My eyes narrowed as I considered where else she could be. The closet? Under the bed?
I shook my head. “Really, Jynx?” I called. “Hiding from me. Aren’t you a little old for that?”
At least she was acting normal again, I hadn’t liked the fear I saw in her eyes when I’d snapped before we’d gone to Finnan’s office.
My rage had taken the reins, demanding she pay for what she’d done.
Wrapping my fingers around her neck had satisfied the urge somewhat, the bloodlust demanding I snatch her last breath from her lungs.
I’d been blinded by my rage, and I could only thank Caolan for interrupting us.
My anger had subsided as quickly as it had appeared, and I was now able to focus my scattered thoughts.
There was a sound behind me, and I only managed a half turn when I felt something slide against my throat.
Instinct made me raise my hands, my fingers sliding underneath the fabric now wrapped around my throat.
Jynx’s mint and citrus scent surrounded me, and my dick was instantly hard, despite the imminent danger.
It obviously didn’t give a fuck that she was trying to kill me.
She let out a feminine grunt and pulled, using her full weight as leverage.
She was so slight that I’d have laughed if I wasn’t being garroted right now.
I fell backward, landing on her and loosening the slack.
She let out a scream of frustration, trying to wiggle free from beneath me, but I had enough bulk there was no possibility of her getting away.
With a twist of my body, I pinned her beneath me, her slender thighs cradling my waist. I smirked down at her as I taunted her softly, letting my eyes run over her heaving chest, the swell of her breasts hidden beneath the fabric of my hoodie.
“If you wanted to get under me again, all you had to do was ask Jynx,”
“Get off me,” she grunted, still thrashing. Still fighting.
“No.”
Her eyes widened. “What do you mean, no?”
“You are clearly a flight risk. Now I must add attempted murderer to that list too.”
“Fuck you,” she hissed into my face, her blue eyes flashing with indignation.
I laughed, then reached into my pocket and pulled out the cuffs. Before she could protest, I snapped one cuff onto her wrist, then clipped the other around my own.
“What are you doing?” she shrieked. Damn, I was glad she was back to normal. I didn’t like to see her so controlled by panic.
“I’m making sure you don’t kill me in my sleep tonight.”
“Yo—You’re—You?—”
“I’m what?” I taunted. “Devastatingly handsome? Devilishly good-looking?”
“Try delusional,” she shot back, her nostrils flaring comically. “You’re insane. You can’t cuff me to you. What happens when I need to use the bathroom?”
I shrugged, flexing my hips against her. “Not my problem. You were the one who tried to kill me.”
“Because you won’t let me leave,” she sputtered. “I need to leave.”
“What, and go take on the Fiach Clan to save your sister?”
“Yes!”
I couldn’t hold back my snort of derision. “You and what army, Molly? There’s no way you can take on an entire clan. What were you going to do? Waltz in there and take your sister and think they wouldn’t put up a fight?”
Her eyes lost some of their righteous anger as she muttered a feeble, “Yes.”
I flexed my hips again, causing her to frown at me.
“Stop that,” she demanded.
“No.” Lifting myself up, I pulled her off the floor and turned toward the bed. She dug her heels in, and I looked over my shoulder. “Do you need to use the bathroom before we go to bed?”
“No!”
“Then what’s the issue?”
“I’m not going to bed with you.”
“You can stand beside the bed then,” I said with a shrug. Yanking my arm, I dragged her closer to the bed, then I threw back the quilt and gestured for her to get in.
For the first time, she looked at something with trepidation.
I’d seen her angry.
I’d seen her in a panic.
I’d seen her with a spine of steel.
But I’d never seen her cautious like this.
“Jynx?” I prompted, and she gazed at me with genuine fear in her eyes.
She swallowed, her throat working over a lump the size of a golf ball. “Please, Keir. I can’t do this. Let me sleep somewhere else. In my own room. In my own bed.”
“This isn’t a hotel.”
She chewed on her full bottom lip as her eyes took in the bed. “I’ll sleep on the floor then.”
I scoffed. “This place is old and drafty as fuck. Trust me, you don’t want to sleep on the floor.”
“I don’t care.”
“Yeah, well, I do,” I grumbled. “We’re both sleeping in the bed. End of story.”
Absently, she rubbed at the cuff locked around her wrist, her movements jerky. Shaking her head—more to herself—she replied, “Can we remove the cuff at least?”
“So you can bolt in the middle of the night? I don’t think so.”
“I won’t escape, I promise,” she told me solemnly.
“Forgive me for not believing you, Jynx, but your track record has been to run. Why would now be any different?”
“I’ll be good,” she whispered in halting breaths. “I promise.” The hair on the back of my neck rose at her subdued tone. She added, “Just, please, take off the cuff.”
Even though it made no sense, I trusted her. Her fear was real, and at the root of her distress was the bed.
“I’ll be good, I promise. I’ll be good.”
Everything inside me rebelled at the sight of the fearful creature now in front of me.
My Jynx was a fucking hell cat. She’d been ballsy enough to leave a bullet for my Clan Boss.
Sliced my arm. Stabbed me in the thigh. She even tried to garrote me.
This version didn’t fit with what I knew about her since she’d forced her way into my orbit.
“Okay, Jynx.”
Wordlessly, she watched me take the keys for the cuffs out of my pocket and insert it into the lock on her wrist. As soon as the metal bracelet fell from her skin, she drew in a deep breath and let it out, her body shaking subtly.
Those seafoam-flecked eyes of hers met mine, and they held gratitude for a brief second before they fell to the bed.
Her reaction was unsettling. I wanted to rewind the clock to just before I came back into the room.
But if there was one thing I knew, it was that you couldn’t turn back time, no matter how much you wished.
Moving slowly, I gathered one of the many pillows on my bed and placed it vertically down the middle, adding another and another until I’d created a pillow wall.
Molly watched me the whole time, her teeth pulling her bottom lip into her mouth.
“I’m going to have to lock the door.” I said, my voice gentle.
Her head bobbed.
I was also going to sleep with my gun beneath my pillow, but I didn’t add that part.
She was tiptoeing along a knife blade right now, and I had no idea what waited for her over the edge.
Turning, I walked to the door and pulled out another key, twisting it in the lock.
As I hit the light switch, the room fell into darkness, and a whimper escaped her.
Walking to the bathroom, I flipped the switch then pulled the door almost closed, allowing a sliver of yellow-gold light to march across the rug covering the stone floor.
Its advance was stopped by the end of the bed and cast the room in a light dim enough to sleep, but we were also now able to see in the darkness.
Moving to my side of the bed, I stared at Molly on the other side of the pillow wall. She still chewed on her bottom lip like the action soothed her.
“Get in,” I told her.
To my surprise, she did, crawling under the quilt and pulling it up to her chin. She peered at me with wide blue eyes, her breaths coming quickly through her mouth. Fuck me, there was some trauma there, but a small part of me—okay, a big fucking part of me—was happy she’d chosen to trust me.
“Are you comfortable?”
She nodded, the cotton rustling in the near-darkness.
“Good.” I sat on the edge of the bed, pulling my gun from the holster on my ankle and sliding it under the pillow.
Normally, I slept naked, but tonight I would remain in my clothes.
Not for any sort of modesty or for Molly’s benefit, but rather because if she tried to kill me, I wanted to be able to defend myself fully clothed.
Stretching out on the mattress, I pulled the quilt over my body. The pillow wall between us was high enough I could barely see the outline of Molly’s head on the other side. Her breathing was still choppy as we both laid there, caught in our own heads as the minutes ticked past.
“You should get some sleep,” I told her.